Apple forced to include charger with iPhone in Sao Paulo

Apple will be required to bundle a power adapter with iPhone models sold in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, despite removing the accessory from the box elsewhere.

Procon-SP, Sao Paulo's state consumer protection agency, has decided to require Apple to provide a charger with iPhone 12 models to customers who request them, the agency said in a press release Wednesday.

Earlier in 2020, Procon-SP asked Apple why it was no longer providing charging accessories with its new iPhones. Apple's answer — that most consumers already have charging bricks and removing them would reduce carbon emissions — didn't satisfy the consumer protection agency.

In its release Wednesday, Procon-SP added that a charging brick is "an essential part" of using an iPhone or other product. By not packaging a charger with its devices, the agency said that Apple is violating the Brazilian Consumer Defense Code.

Additionally, the agency said that Apple did not sufficiently demonstrate the environmental gains made by removing the charger, and did not make it clear enough that a charger wasn't included with new iPhones in its marketing.

Although the decision only applies to the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's National Consumer Secretary is said to be mulling a similar move at the federal level.

The situation is similar to the one in France, where Apple is forced by law to include EarPods with its iPhone models. Because Apple reduced the size of its iPhone packaging, it's doing so by including the actual iPhone inside of another package with the bundled EarPods. It's likely that similar packaging will be used in Sao Paulo, and possibly elsewhere in Brazil.

Apple announced that it would stop packaging EarPods and chargers with its iPhones back in October, citing environmental benefits and the fact that there are currently two billion Apple power adapters out in the wild already.

28 Comments

wby5 3 comments · 4 Years

About 3 years ago

I love this!! Stick it to the man. Not everybody has a USB-c charging block, considering almost all iPhones until very recently have been regular USB charging cord.

MJG33 10 comments · 4 Years

About 3 years ago

Alternative viewpoint; Brazil's government has a very poor standing as far as protecting the environment and reducing emissions or waste. Excerpt from an article on the subject:

Between March and May 2020, the government of Jair Bolsonaro published 195 infralegal acts — ordinances, normative instructions, decrees and other measures — which critics say are an indirect means of dismantling Brazil’s environmental laws and bypassing Congress. During the same period in 2019, just 16 such acts were published.
In April, 2020 Environment Minister Ricardo Salles suggested that the administration “run the cattle” which experts say, within the context Salles used the phrase, is a euphemism for utilizing the COVID-19 crisis as a means of distracting Brazilians from the administration’s active undermining of the environmental rule of law.
A partial study of the 195 acts has found that they, among other things, allow rural landowners who illegally deforested and occupied conserved areas in the Atlantic Forest up to July 2008 to receive full amnesty for their crimes. Another change pays indemnities to those who expropriated properties within federal conservation units.
Shifts in administration management responsibilities have also resulted in what experts say is a weakening of regulations granting and managing national forests, and the relaxation of supervision over fisheries that could allow increased illegal trafficking in tropical fish. A study of the repercussions of all 195 acts is continuing.

SweeTango 7 comments · 5 Years

About 3 years ago

wby5 said:

I love this!! Stick it to the man. Not everybody has a USB-c charging block, considering almost all iPhones until very recently have been regular USB charging cord.

You're spot on. All these chargers everyone supposedly already have, are mostly not USB-C and aren't compatible with the cable included with the new phones. It's obvious this was simply a way to get people to spend more. The "reduced carbon emissions" reasoning is only a creative excuse to put a better (albeit false) spin on it.

haml87 2 comments · 5 Years

About 3 years ago

To be honest, Apple have taken absolute liberties with removing the charger and spinning it as a ‘Sustainability’ issue. They would have made perfect sense had they not put in a usb-c to lightning cable, then introduce a 20w usb-c charger for £20!

Mug over here immediately bought one, played right into the corporate machine that’s is Apple....

flydog 1140 comments · 14 Years

About 3 years ago

haml87 said:

To be honest, Apple have taken absolute liberties with removing the charger and spinning it as a ‘Sustainability’ issue. They would have made perfect sense had they not put in a usb-c to lightning cable, then introduce a 20w usb-c charger for £20!

Mug over here immediately bought one, played right into the corporate machine that’s is Apple....

So instead of buying a $10 cable that works with your existing charger or the myriad of devices that have USB-A ports, you're going to buy a new charger for $30?

Yeah makes perfect sense.